DOH eyes more labs for 'zoo' diseases

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Health (DOH) will upgrade the laboratory capability of its four referral hospitals in view of the emergence and re-emergence of “zoonotic” diseases like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), avian flu and Influenza A(H1N1).

DOH Undersecretary Mario Villaverde said at present, the country relies on the DOH-Research Institute of Tropical Medicines (RITM) in Alabang City to check viruses.

Villaverde said San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City, Davao Medical Center and Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu are already capable of providing clinical care with negative pressure and isolation rooms for infected patients, but they don’t have laboratory capability to analyze or confirm viruses and thus these need to be upgraded.            

At present, the DOH sends throat swab samples of all international in-bound travelers suspected of having A(H1N1) to RITM for confirmation.

The RITM will then send its findings to laboratories abroad for confirmation. But the RITM last week received A(H1N1) testing kits from the United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The kits are good for 300 patients and will be used to validate RITM findings.

Villaverde underscored the country’s need to prepare since various zoonotic viruses are coming out and re-emerging around the world.

Zoonotic viruses are diseases that are transmissible from animals.

The DOH will get the budget for the hospitals’ renovation from the P93-million allocation that they requested from the national government.

“There is now a study being conducted on how this will be carried out. We hope to implement it soon, at least before the end of the year,” Villaverde told The STAR.

Meanwhile, the DOH is keeping under observation an 80-year-old Filipino woman who came from South Korea for having fever, a symptom of Influenza A(H1N1)

In a report, the DOH said the woman underwent laboratory tests at the RITM but results were not yet released. The patient is among three travelers under observation for A(H1N1) virus. The others – a 36-year-old Filipino woman from the United Kingdom and an 11-year-old Filipino boy from the United States – have tested negative for the disease.

The three cases brought to 57 the total number of travelers kept under observation since May 1.

The patients had a history of travel to countries with confirmed A(H1N1) cases, namely: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the US.